Top Ten: Easy Listening

Easy listening, hard lives - that seems to be the theme of this latest Top Ten.

Every one of these smooth operators turns out to have a dark side and a self-destructive tendency towards midlife crisis and career implosion. Some recover to make a triumphant comeback (or several). Others - notably Dean Martin - lose it for good, at least until they achieve posthumous cool status.

This Top Ten might well make you wonder what kind of definition of Easy Listening is being used. Certainly, the masters of hardcore Easy Listening, such as James Last, are omitted. As for Frank Sinatra - he could do Easy Listening, yes, but he could do everything else as well.